Horizontal gene transfer as a source of evolutionary innovation in metazoans

水平基因转移作为后生动物进化创新的来源

• 批准号: 10187583
• 负责人: Irina Arkhipova
• 金额: $ 32.8万
• 依托单位: MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-01 至 2022-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10187583
• 关键词: Animals; Bacteria; Biological; Biology; Code; Comparative Study; Complex; Cytosine; DNA; DNA Restriction-Modification Enzymes; DNA Transposable Elements; Desiccation; Elements; Enzymes; Epigenetic Process; Eukaryota; Event; Evolution; Gene Transfer; Generations; Genes; Genetic Materials; Genetic Transcription; Genome; Genomic DNA; Genomics; Germ Lines; Goals; Horizontal Gene Transfer; Invertebrates; Investigation; Length; Life; Light; Metabolism; Methyltransferase; Modification; Movement; Natural Products; Organism; Parents; Plants; Process; Property; Proteins; RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase; Reader; Recording of previous events; Repetitive Sequence; Role; Secondary to; Shapes; Source; Stretching; System; Taxon; Technology; Testing; Trees; Work; fungus; genetic information; inhibitor/antagonist; innovation; novel; offspring; prevent; recruit; transmission process

PROJECT SUMMARY The role of horizontal gene transfer in eukaryotic evolution remains one of the most hotly debated topics in evolutionary biology. While several claims of massive horizontal transfer in eukaryotes have been disproven in recent years, rotifers of the class Bdelloidea, with 8-10% of their genes coming from non-metazoan sources, remain the only metazoan taxon that withstands the scrutiny. Our work has confirmed the presence and functionality of a non-canonical system of epigenetic modification of bacterial origin, capable of introducing bacterial modification marks into eukaryotic DNA. Further, we identified genes of foreign origin that may serve as potential sources of diversification in the expanded system of secondary metabolism. Finally, with desiccation no longer suspected as the leading reason defining the unusual ability of bdelloids to capture foreign genetic material, we are investigating novel types of giant transposable elements that may have participated in gene transfer. These lines of investigation will be pursued and combined to uncover the complex evolutionary history of foreign gene acquisition and diversification in this exceptional metazoan taxon, and to better understand how the barriers preventing such acquisition in most eukaryotic taxa can occasionally be broken in selected branches of the metazoan tree of life. !

项目总结